Showing posts with label berlin film festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label berlin film festival. Show all posts

6 March 2015

Film Review - Mina Walking (2015)

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Mina Walking is the feature film debut from Yosef Baraki, originally from Afghanistan but now residing in Canada. The film, exploring the life of a young Afghan girl, had it’s world premiere at the Berlinale as part of it’s Generation selection.

The film focuses on seven days in the life of Mina (Farzana Nawabi), an impulsive twelve-year-old who, in order to care for her senile grandfather, and drug-addled father, must take to streets selling cheap trinkets and neglect her education. We follow her as she struggles to emancipate her father from the local, smooth-talking, drug dealer, and attempts to secretly attend school. 

Shot in a semi-documentary style, the camera always stays with Mina as she walks the busy streets, effectively reflecting the chaotic nature of the city, and her life. Shooting her from above during the hectic market scenes emphasises this message. Although a practical solution to avoid too much unwanted attention, it serves to highlight the turbulent nature of the location by viewing Mina’s interactions on a larger scale. We can see that the wider world surrounding her is just as chaotic as her immediate one.

The natural feel is not accidental. Baraki wants to put us in Mina’s shoes and feel her life. Of course the way of shooting emphasises this, but so does the free-flowing rhythm of the dialogue. The amateur actors were given a treatment rather than a full script to work from, leaving much of the dialogue superbly improvised. This makes 12-year-old Farzana Nawabi’s performance even more impressive.

The young actor improvises effortlessly in the potentially difficult market scenes with the general public, and never misses a beat. Her portrayal of Mina is incredibly natural, and completely engaging. She manages to play both feisty and vulnerable in equal measure, leaving no doubt that the audience is on her side, right from the very beginning.

Mina Walking is clearly a personal project for Yosef Baraki, with him wanting to highlight the troubles that young Afghans face as they try to live their lives in the shadow of the Taliban. Nawabi’s natural performance, combined with the active camera, and free-flowing dialogue makes it feel like we are really getting a slice of Afghan culture and some of the situations young Afghans face. Mina Walking is a thoroughly enthralling and engaging film with an important story.


★★★★


Hannah Newton

13 January 2015

Berlinale 2015 - Watch The Trailer For Opening Gala Nobody Wants The Night Starring Juliet Binoche

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2015 Cinehouse And The People's Movies are hoping to spread our wings internationally and next week we will at Sundance Film Festival.In February we also hope to attend Berlin for the first time and today we get our first look at the trailer for the opening film Nobody Wants The Night.

Starring Juliette Binoche, Gabriel Byrne and Rinko Kukuchi, Nobody Wants The Night is set in 1908 a true story that accounts of an upper class womanJosephine (Binoche) who braves the dangerous Artic conditions. She is however the wife of celebrated adventurer Robert Peary however she's not only woman braving the elements Allaka (Kikuchi)  pregnant  to meet her lover and father of her child who happens to be same man Josephine is heading to. After an event  both women as they attempt to survive the most hospitable conditions on Earth.



It's refreshing to see Survival tales from a woman as epic adventures usually one taken by a man, it's also a slight unusual twist on romance too. Fantastic cast and certain to get a good festival run  then a UK distribution, which you could see someone like Artificial Eye, Soda Pictures, Studiocanal picking this film up.

Nobody Wants The Night is directed by Spanish filmmaker Isabel Coixet filmed in Norway and Tnerife, Spain.,Berlin Film Festival opens 5th February.

source:Twitch


11 December 2014

Maisie Williams Among This Year's Shooting Stars for 2015

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Maisie Williams, star of films Heatstroke, Gold, and The Falling, and TV series Game of Thrones, has been nominated for the 2015 Shooting Star Award.  European Film Promotion announced today the ten talented actors from across Europe that will be making their way to the award ceremony held at the Berlin Film Festival on 7th February.  The nominations are as follows: Joachim Fjelstrup (Denmark), Jannis Niewöhner (Germany), Emmi Parviainen (Finland), Hera Hilmar (Iceland), Moe Dunford (Ireland), Aistė Diržiūtė (Lithuania), Abbey Hoes (The Netherlands), Natalia de Molina (Spain), Sven Schelker (Switzerland) and Maisie Williams (UK).

The prestigious award is now approaching it's 18th year, and has served as a platform for it's talented, international alumni such as Daniel Craig (UK - 2000), Daniel Brühl (Germany- 2003), Elio Germano (Italy - 2008), David Dencik (Denmark - 2007), Carey Mulligan (UK - 2009) and Alicia Vikander (Sweden - 2011).

Jury member, Polish film director Malgorzata Szumowska said of the announcement, “ The Shooting Stars jury deliberated at length over what constitutes ‘star quality’ - that rare and special something that allows these actors to rise above their peers and to display not only impressive technical skill in their performances - but also something more. We pored over showreels and past performances of young actors from all over Europe and our discussions in Hamburg this month have resulted in what we think is a particularly strong year .

Other members of the jury include:  actress Eva Röse (Maria Wern), UK film magazine editor Damon Wise (Empire magazine), Slovenian film producer Danijel Hočevar (Circles) and French casting director Nathalie Cheron (Lucy).